Governor Abbott Announces Special Session

Governor Greg Abbott today announced a legislative special session that will begin on July 18th, 2017. In his announcement, Governor Abbott identified 20 items that will be included on the special session call.

"Considering all the successes of the 85th legislative session, we should not be where we are today," said Governor Abbott.

A special session was entirely avoidable, and there was plenty of time for the legislature to forge compromises to avoid the time and taxpayer expense of a special session. As Governor, if I am going to call a special session, I intend to make it count.

Special session agenda items will include:

Sunset legislation

Teacher pay increase of $1,000

Administrative flexibility in teacher hiring and retention practices

School finance reform commission

School choice for special needs students

Property tax reform

Caps on state and local spending

Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land

Preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects